Group-DPS buffs aren't real "Utility" or "Support"

[Equitable_Remedy]

I don't get the obsession with balance

Any content can be cleared with any combination of jobs

Here's the secret: these two things are related.

[Laphicet]

Here's the secret: these two things are related.

Any content could be cleared with any combination of jobs in Stormblood, as well, and jobs had nearly equal usage, too (at least in the healer department). And yet they still gutted the healers and tanks and gave us the ugly, gray blandness of homogenization we have now (where there are clear preferences for specific classes when you look at participation, too, with ridiculous shit like WHM being used more than SCH and AST combined and WHM having as much as 4x the usage of AST early on in the expansion, and with WAR facing the lowest usage of the tanks by a significant amount in spite of the damage of the tanks being within a very small margin of each other. The obsession with balance and making all the classes play the same is hurting usage and variety, pretty significantly at that.

EDIT: not to mention the lore trainwreck that is caused by the AST changes (Arcana butchered, Jannequinard made a rambling fool instead of "bad in practice knowledgeable with theory", time manipulation completely dropped and thus the meaning of the 60 quest somewhat lost, Jannequinard and Leveva constantly talking about royal road and nonsense that's not used anymore making them look incredibly unlearned, and a lot more) ,and SCH changes (Faeries have no difference now, "use the leeches", the soldier side of Nymain Scholars lost with their DPS gutting, and some other small stuff), and to a lesser extent DRK (no real punishment for "going in too deep" with dark abilities anymore, which is a key theme of the 30-50 quests).

[Marxam]

This game went from adps to rdps around SB but at least in SB they were double digit buffs, stance dancing, fairy solo heals were still a thing. This game used to be the weakest player had to perform to match others, but now its the party that has to match the weakest player. Utility is non-existent and what was once utility was consolidated into one of two categories: dmg up or heal. TP being gutted also removed half of the utility that could have existed in the game. Every job can sustain itself, where as previous expansion you had to rely on another party member to help you when you are in dire straits. The focus has shifted from what can each job bring to the party that no one else can provide, to now, where all you need to be is halfway decent wince all jobs have the same toolkit.

Interesting shift of ideology to appease the casual crowd so we'll see if it pays off in the long run. Luckily the story and music is good with gameplay being quite shallow, but 2/3 is not that good and I expected more of FFXIV and the foundations ARR and HW have set. I can tolerate good story and music to a point but when the gameplay is lacking, its a deal breaker because I personally play games for the gameplay and the story and music are just the icing on the cake.